The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Gerbera plant, botanically known as Gerbera hybrida and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Garnikki’.
The new Gerbera plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in De Kwakel, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to create new compact container Gerbera plants with numerous inflorescences, good garden performance, frost tolerance and attractive inflorescence coloration.
The new Gerbera plant originated from a cross-pollination in March, 2006 in De Kwakel, The Netherlands of a proprietary selection of Gerbera hybrida identified as code number B 1043, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Gerbera hybrida identified as code number B002, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Gerbera plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled greenhouse environment in De Kwakel, The Netherlands during the spring of 2007.
Asexual reproduction of the new Gerbera plant by tissue culture in a controlled environment in De Kwakel, The Netherlands since the spring of 2007 has shown that the unique features of this new Gerbera plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.